{{hidden|header=Start successfully?|content='Start successfully' means it should be able to get you to a console that can interact with the mounted installation.|headerstyle=background:#e5e5e5|fw1=normal|ta1=left}}

{{hidden|header=Start successfully?|content='Start successfully' means it should be able to get you to a console that can interact with the mounted installation.|headerstyle=background:#e5e5e5|fw1=normal|ta1=left}}

{{hidden|header=You mean, ANY failures?|content=No, silly - we mean crashes, really. This is about the crash reporting capabilities: when the installer crashes, it should pop up some dialogs that let you send a report containing data on the crash.|headerstyle=background:#e5e5e5|fw1=normal|ta1=left}}

{{hidden|header=You mean, ANY failures?|content=No, silly - we mean crashes, really. This is about the crash reporting capabilities: when the installer crashes, it should pop up some dialogs that let you send a report containing data on the crash.|headerstyle=background:#e5e5e5|fw1=normal|ta1=left}}

Alpha Release Requirements

In order to be released to the general public, the Alpha Candidate (RC) must meet all of the following criteria. This is intended to make the decision process as clear and straightforward as possible. Mostly met items are incomplete until they are met. Optional and nice to have items should not be included in this list.

There may be times where a requirement is unmet only in a particular configuration, such as with some keyboard layouts but not others, or if a particular character is used in a username, password or passphrase. In such cases, the release team should use their judgement and refer to precedent to determine whether or not the issue should be considered to block the release. They should consider the number of users likely to be affected by the issue, the severity of the case when the issue is encountered, and the ease or otherwise with which the issue can be avoided by both informed and uninformed users.

The term release-blocking desktops means all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops for the x86 architectures is GNOME and KDE, and for the ARM architectures is KDE. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for freeze exception status, according to the freeze exception bug process.

The term release-blocking images means all the images in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking images includes the images defined by the three primary Products - Server, Workstation and Cloud - in their product requirement documents and/or technical specifications, and the KDE live image.

Process requirements

In order to be released to the general public, the Alpha Candidate (RC) must meet all of the following criteria. This is intended to make the decision process as clear and straightforward as possible. Mostly met items are incomplete until they are met. Optional and nice to have items should not be included in this list.

There may be times where a requirement is unmet only in a particular configuration, such as with some keyboard layouts but not others, or if a particular character is used in a username, password or passphrase. In such cases, the release team should use their judgement and refer to precedent to determine whether or not the issue should be considered to block the release. They should consider the number of users likely to be affected by the issue, the severity of the case when the issue is encountered, and the ease or otherwise with which the issue can be avoided by both informed and uninformed users.

The term release-blocking desktops means all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops for the x86 architectures is GNOME and KDE, and for the ARM architectures is KDE. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for freeze exception status, according to the freeze exception bug process.

The term release-blocking images means all the images in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking images includes the images defined by the three primary Products - Server, Workstation and Cloud - in their product requirement documents and/or technical specifications, and the KDE live image.

All release-blocking images must boot in their supported configurations.

Supported architectures

Supported architectures are PPC64 and Power7.

Supported media types

Release-blocking dedicated installer images must boot when written to optical or virtual media of an appropriate size (if applicable).

System-specific bugs

System-specific bugs don't necessarily constitute an infringement of this criterion - for instance, if the image fails to boot because of a bug in some specific system's firmware, that is unlikely to constitute a violation unless the system is an extremely popular one. See Blocker_Bug_FAQ for more discussion of this.

Release-blocking dedicated installer images must boot to the expected boot menu, and then after a reasonable timeout to the installer.

Release-blocking live images must boot to the expected boot menu, and then to a desktop or to a login prompt where it is clear how
to log in to a desktop.

Boot menu contents

The boot menu for all supported installer and live images should include an entry which causes both installation and the installed system to use a generic, highly compatible video driver (such as 'vesa'). This mechanism should work correctly, launching the installer or desktop and attempting to use the generic driver.

System-specific bugs

System-specific bugs don't necessarily constitute an infringement of this criterion - for instance, if the installer or desktop fails to start because of a bug in support for some specific graphics card, that is unlikely to constitute a violation. See Blocker_Bug_FAQ for more discussion of this.

References

Bugzilla: #614488 was proposed as Alpha blocker for F14. Bug was fixed before before blocker status was confirmed or rejected.

When using the dedicated installer images, the installer must be able to complete an installation using the text and VNC installation interfaces.

Showstoppers

This criterion covers showstopper bugs in the installer for which there isn't any other specific criterion: obviously, it can't 'complete an installation' if there's a showstopper. However, it does not mean that any failed installation test at all constitutes a release blocking issue: an installer which works fine in most cases but crashes when you attach it to a Hitachi hard disk on a wet Thursday is still 'able to complete an installation'.

When doing a graphical install using the dedicated installer images, the installer must be able to install each of the release blocking desktops, as well as the minimal package set.

Not all at once!

This means you must be able to do a GNOME install, then start over and do a KDE install, then start over and do a minimal install. Not necessarily that you should be able to do any combination of them all at once.

The installer must be able to complete an installation to a single disk using automatic partitioning.

Details!

...well, so long as the disk is big enough, of course. It must work whether the disk is formatted or not and whether or not it contains any existing data - but since this is an Alpha, it's OK if it can only install to a disk with existing data by overwriting it.

Except where otherwise specified, each of these requirements applies to all supported configurations described above.

17

* A system installed with a graphical package set must boot to the 'firstboot' utility on the first boot after installation. The firstboot utility must be able to create a working user account.

After firstboot is completed and on subsequent boots, a graphical install must boot to a log in screen where it is possible to log in to a working desktop as the user created during firstboot.

A system installed without a graphical package set must boot to a state where it is possible to log in through at least one of the default virtual consoles.

Encrypted partitions

In all of the above cases, if any system partitions were encrypted as part of the installation, the boot process must prompt for the passphrase(s) and correctly unlock the partition(s) when provided with the correct passphrase(s).

User intervention

In all of the above cases, the boot should proceed without any unexpected user intervention being required. On a graphical install, if the user explicitly intervenes to prevent graphical boot by passing a bootloader parameter, the non-graphical requirement comes into effect.

System-specific bugs

System-specific bugs don't necessarily constitute an infringement of this criterion - for instance, if the system fails to boot because of a bug in the support some specific system's hardware, that is unlikely to constitute a violation unless the system is an extremely popular one. See Blocker_Bug_FAQ for more discussion of this.

Use for severe issues in applying updates

These criteria can be used to cover known severe issues in applying post-release updates. For instance, if there was a bug that meant the system would install and boot fine but would break as soon as the user ran 'yum update', that may well be covered by these criteria.

References

Requirement for graphical installs to boot to desktop was in original Fedora 13 criteria revision.

The installed system must be able to download and install updates with yum and with the default graphical package manager in all release-blocking desktops.

Bugs in particular updates

A bug in some particular update package will not usually constitute a violation of this criterion. It's really about the update mechanisms functioning correctly. So if yum is working fine, but the update transaction fails because there happen to be two conflicting packages in the repositories, that's not a release blocking problem.

References

Requirement was in force for 'default desktop' in original Fedora 13 criteria revision.

A system logging infrastructure must be available, enabled by default, and working.

What do you mean, 'working'?

Well, it must provide at least basic local file-based logging of kernel messages, and allow other components to write log messages. This must be done in accordance with relevant standards accepted by the Fedora Project.

It must be possible to trigger a clean system shutdown using standard console commands.

What do you mean, 'clean'?

The system must shut down in such a way that storage volumes (e.g. simple partitions, LVs and PVs, RAID arrays) are taken offline safely and the system's BIOS or EFI is correctly requested to power down the system.

A Fedora Change being incomplete, in and of itself, does not constitute a blocker bug. The Change process is separate from this process. Changes are required to meet certain standards at certain points of the release cycle, but this is part of the Change process and managed, tracked and enforced separately from this process. However, if a proposed feature being incomplete causes any of the above criteria to be met, then the bug is a release blocker.

Contingency Plan

If all of the Alpha Release Requirements are not met by 20:00 ETC on Wednesday (1:00 AM UTC Thursday) the week prior to release day, the release will be delayed by one week so that the Alpha Release Requirements can be met.

One week will be added to all remaining tasks in the release schedule, including the final release date.

Confirming Alpha Requirements

QA has the responsibility of determining whether the criteria for the release has been met (as outlined above) through discussion with Development and Release Engineering. QA's findings will be reviewed and discussed at the Go/No-Go Meeting.